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Don't just take my word for it, read it yourself

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Emails and Communications

My initial email to City Manager Stockdale regarding tax payer expenditures and request for publicly published minutes

 

My email with questions regarding drinking water from the Columbia River

 

The document I shared with City Manager Stockdale in summer of 2024 in an attempt to explain why my personal opinion was that the City had work to do to build community trust before seeking bond funds for a police station.
 

I fully support a new police station but believe we should tighten our belts and perhaps reduce the scope of the project. I believe we are capable of funding the project within our own budget parameters instead of seeking additional taxpayer dollars: City Promises Document 

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May 2024 City Council Meeting Regarding Police Station and Bond Funding where this project was presented as City, not additional taxpayer bond, funded.

 

Enterprise Zones

My actual quote from the Enterprise Zone meeting (that I was later sanctioned for): “This is Caden Sipe speaking, as citizen, not mayor. The City has taken a mindset shift, that “this is our money and we’re going to take it home and we’re going to do what we want with it.” And it’s heartbreaking to hear the conversation from the PD, I’m sorry, from the fire department, and from the hospital district, the library district, from vector control, and the ESD and education, and the west end, and all. I think it’s really important that we ensure that we continue these conversations. 

 

Moving forward, I hope that we have these critical conversations and that we’re continuing these and they are fruitful, and that the needs of everyone’s districts are being met. If we’re going to have these programs that are in lieu of taxes, we need to provide dollar figures that are in lieu of those taxes. It cannot be one or the other. It must be a conversation. Equity, and ensuring that we are all at the table talking together and talking about what things look like. 

 

Dave is correct. We do have pipelines that we need to fill, but that’s a conversation piece that we’re doing as a unit. If we’re going to spend $15 million dollars building a pipeline between the City and the County and we’re going out for different grants, everyone in this room should know about it so when we can say, “Hey, your pie is getting smaller, because we’re building a pipeline so we have this tax base for 30 years of timeframe,” then that’s a conversation we need to have. It can’t necessarily be that, “We’re going to go out and build this, and then we’re going to go out and do a bunch of other funding pieces with all these other dollars.” The CREZ examples were honestly hurtful. One of the things that I did some quick back of the napkin math on was if we left staff or funded at the same level, the fire district could get another 1.24 million dollars in the same time frame. I know we don’t have their exact figures, but he’s right, (inaudible), you wouldn’t have to go out for a bond. You could start looking at how you could increase services. Moving forward, I hope those are the types of conversations we can continue to have.”

 

Ethics

My request to and the response from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission regarding my potential conflicts of interest when advocating for funds received from Enterprise Zone payments to be shared with ALL taxing districts and not solely kept by the City and the County

 

Oregon Government Ethics Video of meetings regarding concerns I’ve raised (all queued to the starting points for each video):

 

Statements shared here are personal opinions

and are not intended to represent the City of Umatilla

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©2025 by Caden Sipe.

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